Abstract
The chapter provides an overview of the book and its particular focus and contribution to the generating of knowledge on sexual minorities in the Middle Eastern context. It describes the aims, structure, and research questions that informed the study. The methods used, the setting of the research, as well as the researcher’s positionality are discussed. The focus is on describing the ethnographic approach used when collecting the data and introducing the research context, Iran/Tehran, as well as those who participated in the research. Ethical questions relating to conducting research underground are addressed.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Ahmadinejad’s media adviser Mohammad Kalhor he meant that “compared to American society, we don’t have many homosexuals” (President misquoted over gays in Iran: Aide 2007, October 10).
- 2.
In the past years this has been changing and today lot of pop or modern music is produced in Iran. These artists are often more popular than those coming from Los Angeles because their fans can buy their music in Iran, see their faces on the billboards, and go to their concerts (see e.g., Semati 2017; Robertson 2012).
- 3.
To summarize, a person with blue eyes is for many Iranians a symbol of the West and something that can be considered to be foreign or even exotic. One of my informants said the following when I asked him what blue eyes meant for many Iranians: “Iranians who immigrate to EU or North America are obsessed by finding a spouse with blue eyes and blond hair! It is considered a big achievement!”.
- 4.
Filternet is software that constantly filters one’s Internet traffic.
- 5.
Manjam is a social/dating network website that enables gay and bisexual men to connect. The website has been translated into 28 languages, among other Persian (Farsi) and Arabic. Thus, the website has been and still is quite popular with users that speak these languages. Manjam enables its users to travel virtually from one location to another. This, for example, enabled me to be virtually located in Tehran when I was doing my fieldwork and finding access into the Tehran gay community.
- 6.
VPN or Virtual Proxy Network allows you to connect your device to a secure connection to another network over the Internet. VPN enables you to access blocked websites from your home network and put your IP address in a land far away. You can also download the apps or open the sites blocked in your country.
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Kjaran, J.I. (2019). Introduction. In: Gay Life Stories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12831-9_1
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